A Moment
by Choice Creations
Summary: An Otalia Story - Emma surpises Natalia more than once as they share a sweet moment in the kitchen together.


An Otalia Story - Emma surpises Natalia more than once as they share a sweet moment in the kitchen together.

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><p>In the late afternoon, after school, Emma carefully balances Scotch tape, a pair of scissors and a stick of glue on a stack of multi-colored construction paper. She gingerly places her pile on the kitchen table trying her best not to drop anything. The crackle of plastic smacks the floor; the tape has fallen off the edge of her paper platform. Emma spots it behind the leg of a chair, under the table, and scurries to her hands and knees to get it.<p>

When Natalia walks into the kitchen she curiously looks around and at the art supplies, not knowing how they got there. She turns to leave the room.

"Natalia!" Emma says popping out from under the table, holding the tape. A sugary sweet smile lights up her face.

Natalia places a hand over her rapidly beating heart.

"Did I scare you?" Emma wonders, beaming with delight.

"Just a bit," Natalia says. "Didn't I just walk past you in your bedroom upstairs?"

Emma shrugs her response and says, "I have a project to do."

"Me too," Natalia says as she reaches for a pot from the cabinet. "It's called dinner, before your mom comes home. What's your project about?"

"It's for art class. I have to make a college of myself, or something like that."

"Do you mean a coll-age?" Natalia asks endearingly.

"Ya that's it. With bits and pieces of paper," Emma says. She looks at the materials perplexed. "The teacher showed us how to do it but I've never done it before. I think I need help."

"Well, I'm going to start the lasagna –"

"Don't put too much cheese," Emma interrupts.

"I know how your mom likes it," Natalia says as she playfully pokes Emma's nose. Emma giggles. "But you can start by cutting up the paper into little pieces."

"But the teacher told us to tear them up."

"Tear 'em, cut 'em. When you're done, I'll help you."

"Okay," Emma says delighted.

"How was school?" Natalia asks as she starts a pot of water to boil.

"Okay," Emma answers as she selects a colored sheet to start ripping. "Oh! Steven sat next to me at lunch."

"Ooooh," Natalia says, her eyes aglow. "That sounds special."

"I shared my cookie with him."

"That was nice of you," Natalia says as she wraps an apron around her waist, tying the strings in back of her. She gives up trying to tie the strings in front of her, once she realizes that they won't reach around her 6-month pregnant belly.

"Ya."

Natalia removes fresh tomatoes and onions from the fridge and says, "You really like him don't you."

"Ya," Emma says as she adds more fragments of paper to her growing pile; peach, rose, brown, green. "He didn't play with me at recess though."

"No?" Natalia says as she places pasta into the boiling water.

"He played with some other boys in my class. Kickball or dodgeball or something."

"You know what?" Natalia says. "That's what makes us all so interesting. We all like different things, to have other types of friends or to play different kinds of games. But then there are things that we have in common that bring people together."

"Like a cookie," Emma exclaims. Her torn paper pile growing.

"Like sharing a cookie. Exactly!"

"Like you and my mom sharing me."

Natalia gives Emma a questioning stare.

"That's what you two have in common," Emma explains. "You and my mom share me. And then when the baby comes, you'll share me and my baby sister."

"Ya," Natalia laughs as she crushes the tomatoes and dices the onions for the sauce. "Something like that."

"Mom, oh, I mean, Natalia," Emma exclaims as she points to her impressive mound of paper. "I'm all done!"

Before she looks up from the chopping board, Natalia smiles to herself then says to Emma, "That's great. Let me finish chopping these up, I'll wash my hands and be right with you."

An image of Rafe's little boy face materializes in her mind. She misses him so much. She loved raising him; he was such a good boy and mothering him was a joy and a blessing. But now at nineteen, and in the armed forces, Rafe is a constant reminder of how much Natalia has outgrown motherhood. Until Emma. Emma reminds her of what she loves to do; to nurture and feed, to dote on and show affection to. Emma allows her to be again.

"Emma?" Natalia says as she dries her soapy hands. She lovingly places her hand on Emma's head and looks into her precious face. "You know, you could call me mom, if you want to. Would you like that?"

"Ya!" Emma says as her eyes brighten and she reveals her rabbitty smile. "But…well.."

Concern clouds Natalia's face.

"I already call my mom, mom but...I can call you something else," Emma says with delight.

"Okay," Natalia says as her uneasiness is erased by the piercing dimples of her smile.

"I can call you...mmm?" Emma ponders. "Mommy Natalia. That's sort of long but that way I can tell the difference between you and my mom, mom."

"That's great. I love it. Mommy Natalia. Mommy for short, maybe? If it isn't confusing, of course," Natalia says. "I like it. It's settled."

Natalia takes in Emma's content smile and looks into Emma's cheerful eyes. She sees the love that Olivia put into raising this joy of a little girl, and appreciates Olivia more than ever. Natalia knows that she made the right choice; the choice to debunk expectations, to challenge everything she ever believed, and to have faith in this kind of love.

She struggles to bend down and give Emma a big hug; inhaling that innocent, fresh little person smell that she remembers Rafe having when he was Emma's age.


End file.
